RT Journal Article
T1 SEMIC: an efficient surface energy and mass balance model applied to the Greenland ice sheet
A1 Krapp, Mario
A1 Robinson, Alexander James
A1 Ganopolski, Andrey
AB We present SEMIC, a Surface Energy and Mass balance model of Intermediate Complexity for snow-and ice-covered surfaces such as the Greenland ice sheet. SEMIC is fast enough for glacial cycle applications, making it a suitable replacement for simpler methods such as the positive degree day (PDD) method often used in ice sheet modelling. Our model explicitly calculates the main processes involved in the surface energy and mass balance, while maintaining a simple interface and requiring minimal data input to drive it. In this novel approach, we parameterise diurnal temperature variations in order to more realistically capture the daily thaw-freeze cycles that characterise the ice sheet mass balance. We show how to derive optimal model parameters for SEMIC specifically to reproduce surface characteristics and day-to-day variations similar to the regional climate model MAR (Modele Atmospherique Regional, version 2) and its incorporated multilayer snowpack model SISVAT (Soil Ice Snow Vegetation Atmosphere Transfer). A validation test shows that SEMIC simulates future changes in surface temperature and surface mass balance in good agreement with the more sophisticated multilayer snowpack model SISVAT included in MAR. With this paper, we present a physically based surface model to the ice sheet modelling community that is general enough to be used with in situ observations, climate model, or reanalysis data, and that is at the same time computationally fast enough for long-term integrations, such as glacial cycles or future climate change scenarios.
PB Copernicus Gesellschaft MBH
SN 1994-0416
YR 2017
FD 2017-07-03
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/18011
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/18011
LA eng
NO © Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. We would like to thank Xavier Fettweis for providing MAR/CanESM2 data. Mario Krapp is also grateful to Malte Heinemann and Axel Timmermann for their kind hospitality during his research visit at the International Pacific Research Center (SOEST, University of Hawaii). Alexander Robinson was funded by the Marie Curie 7th Framework Programme (Project PIEF-GA-2012-331835, EURICE). Mario Krapp was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Project "Modeling the Greenland ice sheet response to climate change on different timescales".
NO Unión Europea. FP7
NO Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 10 abr 2025